Reserachers from the Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital believe the reason for the loss of brain cells is not due to insufficient supply of blood and oxygen in a developing brain, which was previously thought to be true; but to the cells failure to mature completely, according to medical Xpress.
Stephen Back, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and neurology in the Papé Family Pediatric Research Institute at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital, led the study and discovered the actual cause of pre-term birth, which can be fought by developing new and effective therapies.
"As neurologists, we thought ischemia killed the neurons and that they were irreversibly lost from the brain," Dr. Back said, according to Medical Xpress. "But this new data challenges that notion by showing that ischemia, or low blood flow to the brain, can alter the maturation of the neurons without causing the death of these cells. As a result, we can focus greater attention on developing the right interventions, at the right time early in development, to promote neurons to more fully mature and reduce the often serious impact of preterm birth. We now we have a much more hopeful scenario."
Several studies were conducted by the researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher in a critical conditioned pre-term sheep which helped in understanding if the blood flow led to damage of a developing brain. The result was a break-through to all the previous studies.
Dr. Back and his team used highly advanced MRI studies which helped in finding the injury to a developing brain much early. The main-focused area was the thinking region of the brain called cerebral cortex which controls all main activities such as learning, attention and behaviors, since it is usually damaged in pre-term infants. The results showed that the there was no loss of brain cells due to insufficient supply of blood, but was found that the brain cells failed to mature fully, according to Medical Xpress.
"I believe these studies provide hope for the future for preterm babies with brain injury, because our findings suggest that neurons are not being permanently lost from the human cerebral cortex due to ischemia," Dr. Back said. "This raises the possibility that neurodevelopmental enrichment-or perhaps improved early infant nutrition-as suggested by the companion paper, might make a difference in terms of improved cognitive outcome."
The study is published in the January edition of an online journal Science Translational Medicine.
